SlimSAFE

The PCS (Port Community System) is the single computerized engine that handles all events returning from the various private and institutional players and makes the information available to them all. A significant role is played by the applications for protection and safety of port work.

SlimSAFE is used to analyse, model and supervise work activities in the open air using IT solutions to define and control the operating procedures, classify the entities involved (people, positioning devices, sensors, actuators, work areas, personal protective equipment, vehicles, etc.), design the operating processes (work flow) and define the risk scenarios.

The SlimSAFE platform, designed for companies operating in the port environment, provides companies with a versatile tool for monitoring and managing the progress of their activities, showing a map of the construction site, the work areas, the status of the activities and the position of the resources in real time on the desktop computer or mobile device. The application can also be used to take direct action, informing all resources of work communications and alarms that can be activated also by a violation of predefined rules, such as the presence of unauthorized staff or imminent danger.

SlimSAFE is based on the integration of two systems: the Safety Management Component and the Safety Control Component.

The Safety Management Component is the central element of the IT architecture and is based on the adoption of:

the work flow management platform of the partner company Openworkbpm for managing the operating tasks that make up the processes;

Complex Event Processing, for processing field data and detecting any dangerous conditions.

It consists of the targeted and direct collection and consultation of all the safety information involved in carrying out field activities, their modelling, identification of the players involved, definition of information flows and management of any faults, ex-post analysis of events for identifying improvement operations.

To start the safety management system, the identification web forms of the system's database for the cross-company entities (risks, jobs, activities and authorizations) must be filled in.

The web forms are simple and user-friendly. Every company that intends to use the service must register on the system together with the people and material resources involved in the organization of the work.

For companies registered on the system, a port activity can then be planned by entering a linear set of information:

operating company;

activity to be carried out;

date and time of the activity;

work area;

duration of the operation;

staff employed;

sensors and actuators to be used;

positioning devices to be linked with vehicles and/or goods;

goods to be moved (data coming from the PCS).

PrerequisitesThere is a series of prerequisites for planning a work activity. First of all, the database of the Openwork suite must be populated with all the entities that interact with the system. It is therefore necessary to use a tool of the suite called Type Designer to define the structure of the data related to the entities in question:

work activity: examples include the movement of exceptional goods, movement of powdery goods and movement of roll-on/roll off and/or roll-on/roll off passenger (Ro-Ro/Ro-Pax) ships;

person: jobs and qualifications can be associated with each entity of this class. Each person is assigned an identification QRcode. The person type entities will also be saved to the middleware database by invoking web services published by it;

port company;

vehicle: truck, trailer, forklift truck, etc.;

vehicle servicing: used to specify what servicing activities have been carried out on it;

PPE: safety shoes, gloves, helmet, snap shackle, etc.;

equipment: mobile crane, etc.;

work area: the instances of this entity are used to specify the area in which a port operation is to be performed. The work area is defined as a sequence of contiguous squares through interaction with an application based on Google maps;

activity planning: every instance of this entity starts one of the company’s typical operating activities. In this instance, it will be necessary to define the type of activity to be carried out, the area in which it will be performed, the start date and time, the estimated duration, the people involved, any goods to be moved, etc.

Identifying the riskSafety will be supported by Complex Event Processing (CEP), which is used to process a set of events to identify those sensitive for Risk Management, using techniques such as the detection of complex patterns in a flow of events, the correlation and abstraction of events or hierarchical relations between them.

CEP manages an incoming flow of events to which one or more rules (risk conditions) are applied. The outgoing event/risk can be intercepted by the Business Process Management in order to interrupt the risk source activities and start a vertical process that comprises tasks for sending notifications to the supervision centre.

There is the client voice and data communication application module (APP) for staff working in field. The system interface is used to view a map of the construction site, the areas of interest, the status of the activities and the position of the resources in real time on the mobile device.

The work areas are represented by graphical layers overlaid on georeferenced maps, with a higher definition than those of the main geolocation frameworks. This means providing additional zoom levels and thus the possibility of viewing relatively small areas in acceptable detail. At programmed intervals, the APP transmits its GPS position to a server from which it receives the position of the other devices connected. The users are shown as points on the map, the colour of which depends upon the role. By clicking on each point, information about it is obtained and, if it represents a person, voice communication functions (VoIP) can be accessed.

The APP was developed for terminals with the operating system Android 2.2 or later.

By means of ACS acquisition in 2016, Exprivia fully entered the market of Space systems and applications. Exprivia thus increases its know-how in the industrial sector, creating synergies to identify new application domains.

In the Homeland Protection sector, Exprivia has developed in-depth knowledge of large defence systems through collaboration with the largest Italian company in the sector, acquiring considerable know how in the field of electronics for land and sea defence, in safety and information protection systems, the management and control of air and airport traffic, marine, port and coastal supervision.

In the Defence and Aerospace area, Exprivia has important competencies in the Verification and Validation process (software testing for short), where it works in collaboration with university IT departments.